etiquette

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The manners or decent behaviour to be observed in social or professional life; conventional decorum; the ceremonial code of polite society.

   20 May 2018, Hadley Freeman in The Guardian, Is Meghan Markle the American the royals have needed all along? Much shock was expressed in the British press about the Palace’s utter failure to control the Markles and the Markles’ lack of etiquette.

2. 2
   noun

   The customary behavior of members of a profession, business, law, or sports team towards each other.

   Cycling's complex etiquette contains an unwritten rule that riders in contention for a race win should not be penalised for sheer misfortune.

3. 3
   noun

   rules governing socially acceptable behavior

4. 4
   noun

   A label used to indicate that a letter is to be sent by airmail.

Simplified etymology

Etiquette was borrowed from French, where it meant both “label or ticket” and a list of ceremonies observed at a royal court. The shift to “a code of correct behaviour” is not entirely clear, but it probably reflects Spanish court usage, where strict ceremonial rules were recorded in an official list.

1740, from French étiquette (“property, a little piece of paper, or a mark or title, affixed to a bag or bundle, expressing its contents, a label, ticket”), from Middle French estiquette (“ticket, memorandum”), from the Old French verb estechier, estichier, estequier (“to attach, stick”), (compare Picard estiquier (“to stick, pierce”)), from Frankish *stekan, *stikkjan (“to stick, pierce, sting”), from Proto-Germanic *stikaną, *stikōną, *staikijaną (“to be sharp, pierce, prick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp, to stab”). Akin to Old High German stehhan (“to stick, attach, na...

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External links

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